ANNUAL REPORT
Kofi Annan
Dear Friend of Hirondelle USA, Over the last year, many of the countries where Hirondelle operates were back in the headlines — the struggle against Ebola, sectarian violence in South Sudan and Central African Republic, and the uncertain road to peace in Mali. And in each of these cases, Hirondelle journalists were on the front lines, informing citizens about the multiple dangers they face, stifling rumors and propaganda, and providing a forum for the voices of peace and reason. Your support and involvement with Hirondelle USA (HUSA) made this possible: • In Guinea and Sierra Leone, HUSA provided equipment and support to local journalists reporting from the front lines of the Ebola crisis. • In Mali, Guinea and Sierra Leone HUSA supported radio programming on girls’ education, female economic empowerment, sexual violence, teen pregnancy and early marriage. • HUSA supported the broadcast of women’s programming in local languages to 26 radio partners in Mali, 23 rural radios in Guinea and 26 community radios in Sierra Leone. • HUSA supported training and daily coaching on gender sensitive reporting for 38 West African radio journalists. • In Mali, our partner Studio Tamani hosted ground breaking live programming on Female Genital Mutilation, a practice that affects 85% of Malian girls. Our work has impact. At Harvard, where I am a Senior Fellow and Visiting Scientist with the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, we’re working to better understand what the Ebola crisis has taught us about the way communities gain knowledge about public health and adopt life saving measures during infectious disease outbreaks. In particular, we’re looking at the role of local journalists, and at the effect of credibility, engagement and proximity in the delivery of information. I am as excited as ever by what we’re doing at Hirondelle USA and at our partner organization, Fondation Hirondelle, in Switzerland. This year Fondation Hirondelle celebrates 20 years working for justice and human dignity with projects in 7 critical countries and an estimated audience of 30 million people. Underpinning our work is the belief and faith that objective journalism can save lives during conflict or humanitarian crisis, can foster accountability, and set standards of transparency, accuracy and truth telling. Our ability to do this work and spread it depends on the involvement and contributions of people like you. We are grateful for your generous support in 2014. Anne Bennett Executive Director and Member of the Board of Directors Hirondelle USA
We believe in the power of information. At Hirondelle, we create independent media, train local journalists and report on vital stories in order to inform and engage communities as they emerge from conflict or face humanitarian crises.
“Hirondelle a mpli communities i fies the voices of underreported n some of the most regions of th Their courage e world. ous work stre ngthens are o wn.“ Elisa Lees Mu ñ International oz, Executive Director Women’s Media Foundation
“It’s not just about training and financing but about the media framework ... We need strong and credible media. Media has a vital role to play in informing communities to become resilient.” - Anne Bennett
Democracy must be built through open societies that share information. When there is information, there is enlightenment. When there is debate, there are solutions. When there is no sharing of power, no rule of law, no accountability, there is abuse, corruption, subjugation and indignation. - Atifete Jahjaga
The importance of credible, trustworthy local media reporting in the delivery of life-saving information is acutely evident during conflict and natural disasters. Local journalists are first responders, providing the critically important link between the authorities and emergency teams working with affected populations. As a country emerges from crisis, independent media, led by strong, professional journalists and editors, plays a vital role in the transition to a just and democratic society, where citizens enjoy the full realization of political, social and economic rights. An independent media will support civil society, liking policy makers to constituents, acting as a watchdog and fostering vibrant debate and civic engagement. Professional, informed reporting on public health, urban planning, environmental health and societal influences of health related behaviors has the potential to inform public policy debates— thus contributing a critical element to educating and empowering people to lead healthier lives.
www.hirondelleusa.org
Providing Information and Voice for Women in West Africa In Mali, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Cote d’Ivoire, Hirondelle USA is working to raise the quality of reporting on issues affecting women, girls and families, and to improve the capacity of journalists to report on sensitive topics such as sexual violence, domestic abuse, FGM, and early marriage. By using radio formats such as the “magazine” and debate that are part of the daily radio programming grid, Hirondelle has seen a subtle shift in the newsroom, as issues that affect women and families are increasingly considered legitimate news and information topics. When the radio is popular and credible, this can have a far-reaching impact on the news agenda of the media sector as a whole. In 2015 HUSA received further funding from The Ford Foundation to continue this work in Mali, Guinea and Sierra Leone and extend the work to the Ivory Coast.
Mariatu Kabba, Cotton Tree News in Sierra Leone When schools opened in Sierra Leone on April 14 after a 9-month closure during the worst of the Ebola crisis, “visibly pregnant” schoolgirls were told by the Ministry of Education to stay home. Up at Fourah Bay College, Mass Communications student journalist Mariatu Kabba knew this was a hot topic for her weekly Womon Tok program. Did, as the Minister reasoned, seeing a pregnant classmate somehow make it ok to become pregnant? What did the experts have to say? Mariatu’s reporting was able to delve deeply into what some call “a national crisis”: as many as 40% of pregnancies occur to teens, resulting in complicated and dangerous births and high drop out rates. Mariatu had discovered that not all the experts agreed with the new national policy, raising issues of the right to education, stigma, and the increase in sexual violence, and related pregnancies, during the Ebola crisis. Mariatu’s program, Womon Tok, and the training and mentorship she receives at Fourah Bay College, is the result of a partnership between The University of Sierra Leone, Hirondelle USA, The Ford Foundation and Fondation Hirondelle.
Sira Bathily, Studio Tamani in Mali In Mali, an estimated 85 % of women are affected by female circumcision, or FGM. On Studio Tamani’s flagship evening current affairs debate, a ground breaking discussion on FGM drew out some clear definitions from medical practitioners and views seldom heard from women and religious leaders. Not only did the program receive numerous text messages from listeners, other media were emboldened to start talking about this “taboo” topic. We call this the snow plough effect, as we clear a place for other radios and newspapers to occupy.
Sylvie Panika, Radio Ndeke Luka, Central African Republic Sylvie is the Director of Radio Ndeke Luka in Bangui, Central African Republic. With her team of professionals, she has kept this trusted and extremely popular radio on air throughout the crisis in 2014. Sylvie is a model of courage and professionalism for all of us in the media, and particularly for the women breaking into a field still dominated by men. We know that to best serve the public, and to cover society fairly and accurately, our media need to reflect the diversity of the communities they cover. We’ve also seen how a newsroom leader’s gender can have a subtle yet important influence on what stories are covered and how, as well as who gets promoted and why.
www.hirondelleusa.org
Ebola brings to the forefront not just the issue of accountability but also of trust Hirondelle journalists were among the first to report on the early cases of Ebola coming from the rural interior of Guinea and Sierra Leone. We did not know at the time that this story would soon be the only story coming out of West Africa and that over the course of the coming year, Hirondelle’s media partners in Sierra Leone and Guinea would be doing some of their best reporting ever, and in conditions we could not have foreseen. Ebola had a particular impact on women in the region, and our work in Mali, Guinea and Sierra Leone to support radio programming on issues of importance to women enabled our journalists to cover stories on stigma, sexual violence and the increase in teen pregnancy. Hirondelle has one advantage in communicating life saving information to populations at risk: a reputation for credibility and a trusted listenership, built up over years of reporting from communities on the issues that affect people’s daily lives. Credibility that comes from listening to people who have views, concerns, and stories to tell.
SHAPING THE CONVERSATION Special Adviser of the United Nations Secretary General for the Prevention of Genocide, Adama Dieng, joined Hirondelle USA in the home of the Swiss Ambassador in New York for a discussion on genocide, early warning and the role of the media.
At the Commission on the Status Women in New York, Hirondelle USA’s Executive Director spoke on how access to information and communications technologies and a free and independent media can serve as an effective means to contribute to gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls.
At the 27th Session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, September 16, 2014, our Executive Director addressed a side event on the centrality of local journalism to human rights education.
“If we want to save lives in communities ravaged by Ebola, we need to send in doctors and nurses. But let’s also send in the local journalists, trusted sources of news, close to the communities they cover and trained in good journalism. The tragedy at Womé has shown how an absence of understanding can leave a population navigating blindly, and how messages that arrive with the government stamp are met with mistrust. In the same way we’re investing in vaccines, water wells and bed-nets, let’s commit to the long-term viability of local media so that they can explain, illuminate and, in some cases, save lives. ”
— HirondelleUSA, Boston Globe Op-ed. www.hirondelleusa.org
BOARD OF DIRECTORS Sarah Lederman PRESIDENT
Sarah Henry Lederman teaches at The Spence School in New York City. She has an undergraduate degree in European History from Princeton University and a Ph.D. in American history from Columbia University. Before beginning her graduate studies she worked as a reporter for a year at Foster’s Daily Democrat in Dover, NH.
Mulan Ashwin SECRETARY
Mulan Ashwin is an Australian and US trained lawyer. She has worked in a Washington DC law firm, a NY corporate law firm and then as a lawyer in the Legal Department of the United Nations. She has also worked with several not for profit organizations and has served as an electoral observer for the UN in Mozambique. She currently devotes time to the International Rescue Committee in New York, assisting resettled refugees integration into US society. Ashwin graduated from the University of Sydney with a Bachelor of Laws, Cornell University Law School with a Master of Laws and Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs with a Master in International Affairs.
Anne Bennett EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Anne Bennett is the Executive Director of Hirondelle USA and a Senior Fellow and Visiting Scientist at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative. She has worked in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Sudan and South Sudan with Foundation Hirondelle, creating and managing independent, public interest radio stations. Prior to joining Hirondelle, Bennett served as a Consultant at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and United
Nations Office in Geneva, where her analysis of internal United Nations archives led to the opening up of UN human rights documentation spanning four decades and shedding light on politicization of refugee work during the Cold War. She is a founding Board Member of Media Matters for Women, a media start up using Bluetooth to engage and inform women in West Africa, and a Board Member of Radio Mt Aureal at University of Sierra Leone. She graduated from University of California with a degree in History and holds a Masters in International History and Politics from the Graduate Institute of International Studies, University of Geneva.
Philip Bennett TREASURER
Philip Bennett is the Director of the DeWitt Wallace Center for Media and Democracy at Duke University and the Patterson Professor of Public Policy and Journalism. Between 20052009 he was the managing editor of The Washington Post, and has been an editor of international and national security coverage, a local news reporter and a foreign correspondent. Since leaving the Post newsroom, Bennett has worked on new media projects for The Washington Post Co. and served as managing editor of the television series FRONTLINE on PBS. He joined the Duke University faculty in July 2009. He is teaching about journalism ethics and national security secrecy, the news media and Islam, and subjects relating to the future of journalism. Bennett graduated from Harvard College in 1981 with a BA in history.
Elan Blutinger
Elan Blutinger has been a managing director of Alpine Consolidated, LLC, a merchant bank specializing in consolidating fragmented industries, since 1996. He serves as the Chairman and CEO of Washington, DC based, AudioNow, the largest call-to-listen mobile broadcasting technology company in the industry, and Park-City Utah-based Vacationroost, an online lodging technology company. Mr. Blutinger has served as the chair of the board of trustees of the Washington International School in Washington, D.C. He holds B.A. and J.D. degrees from American University and an M.A. degree from the University of California at Berkeley. He is currently the Vice-Chairman of Our Time.Org, a bipartisan youth advocacy group and leads the organizations efforts to develop a for-profit operating unit.
Carroll Bogert
Carroll Bogert is the Deputy Executive Director for External Relations at Human Rights Watch. She oversees the organization’s external relations and works with the executive director on advocacy and fundraising. Bogert previously served as Human Rights Watch’s communications director, publicizing the organization’s work and drawing attention to human rights issues in more than 90 countries worldwide. Before joining Human Rights Watch, she spent more than a decade in international news reporting for Newsweek magazine, beginning as a stringer in China, then moving to the Southeast Asia bureau as correspondent, becoming bureau chief in Moscow, and finally working as an editor and international correspondent in the magazine’s New York office. Bogert holds an M.A. in East Asian Studies and a B.A. magna cum laude from Harvard University. She speaks Russian, French, and Mandarin.
www.hirondelleusa.org
James Brenner
James Brenner is the founder and CEO founder and CEO of Broad Cove, an investment and project management firm that serves as a bridge between international capital sources and high-potential, housing-related initiatives in frontier markets. He worked as a senior advisor to John F. Kerry when he served in the US Senate, responsible for shaping legislation in international trade, banking and taxation. Mr. Brenner holds degrees from Wesleyan University, where he built his first solar-house, and Harvard University’s JFK School of Government.
Caroline Kurtz
Caroline Kurtz lives with her family in Missoula, Montana, where she is a freelance writer and editor specializing in scientific and natural history topics. She has served on boards and advisory committees of numerous local non-profit organizations, and recently has been particularly involved in creating a new collaborative-funding initiative aimed at strengthening the organizational capacity of important cultural and social service non-profits in the state. She received her B.A. in English from Vassar College and a master’s degree in Science Communication from Boston University.
Christopher Fomunyoh
Dr. Christopher Fomunyoh is currently senior associate and regional director for Central and West Africa at National Democratic Institute. He has organized and advised international election observation missions and designed and supervised country specific democracy support programs in numerous African countries. He recently designed and helped launch the African Statesmen Initiative (ASI), a program aimed at facilitating political transitions in Africa by encouraging former democratic heads of state to stay engaged in humanitarian issues, conflict mediation, public health and other key sectors of political, economic and human development on the continent.
Dr. Fomunyoh holds a Licence en Droit from Yaoundé University in Cameroon, a master’s degree (LL.M.) in international law from Harvard Law School; and a Ph.D. in political science from Boston University. He is the founder of a nonprofit organization that supports democracy and humanitarian causes in Cameroon.
Peter McKillop
Peter McKillop, Managing Director, is Global Head of Communications for BlackRock’s iShares ETF business. In this role, he drives the communication strategy and oversees media relations, executive communications and internal communications for iShares globally. Prior to joining BlackRock in January 2014, Mr. McKillop held leadership roles in global communications and marketing at JP Morgan, UBS, KKR and Bank of America. He also served as Managing Director of the Japan office of Burson-Marsteller and Regional Media Director for its Asia-Pacific operations, where he provided strategic marketing, public affairs and crisis communications counsel to leading Fortune 500 companies Prior to joining financial services, Mr. McKillop was a senior correspondent and bureau chief for Newsweek from 1983-1995 in New York, Tokyo and Hong Kong covering key social, political, cultural and financial events. Mr. McKillop helped start and continues to play an active role in the Harvard University Symposium for Building a 21st Century Financial System for Japan and the US, which brings together senior government, finance, and academic experts to discuss significant financial issues between the US and Japan. Mr. McKillop is a board member of the Africa-American Institute and a trustee at Eaglebrook School, in Deerfield, MA. Mr. Mckillop received his bachelor’s degree from Wesleyan University in 1981 where he majored in African Studies.
Michael Schoenfeld
Michael Schoenfeld is Vice President for Public Affairs and Government Relations at Duke University, where he leads external affairs and advocacy for the university and medical center, directs Duke’s Washington, DC, center, and serves as the principal spokesperson. He also teaches a seminar on media, politics and policy at Duke’s Sanford School of Public Policy. A veteran communications and public affairs executive, Schoenfeld was previously vice chancellor for public affairs at Vanderbilt University from 19972008. His media experience includes service as senior vice president of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, director of program development at USIA-Worldnet TV, and executive assistant to the director of the Voice of America (VOA). He started his career as a reporter and newscaster for VOA, where he also served as Congressional liaison officer. A 1984 Duke graduate, Schoenfeld earned a master’s degree in public policy from Stony Brook University.
Caroline Vuillemin (non-voting)
Caroline Vuillemin has been engaged in international development, particularly with Africa, for most of her career. As a former Africa Program Officer for the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) she set up and managed the IFES office in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) from 1998 to 2003, and worked extensively in the African Great Lakes region on projects in Rwanda, Burundi and Congo-Brazzaville. She participated in many Elections Observation missions with IFES, notably the national elections in South Africa and Nigeria in 1999. Caroline Vuillemin joined Fondation Hirondelle in December 2003,and in 2008 became a member of the Executive team as Chief Operations Officer. Vuillemin holds a Degree in Political Science from the Lyon “Institut d’Etudes Politiques”, and a BA in International Relations from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service.
our 2014 budget Other Grants $170,000
Contributions $102,100
Grants Foundation Hirondelle $77,783
General and administrative $29,660
Program $259,724 For more information contact Anne Bennett, Executive Director Hirondelle USA abennett@hirondelleusa.org 646.291.9848
Fundraising $40,103
PHOTO CREDITS: Cover photo: Pete Muller Photography Hirondelle USA thanks the following contributing photographers: Brighstar XD, Marc Ellison, Jean-Luc Mootoosamy, Jean-Claude Capt, Jess Kwong
Join Hirondelle USA in supporting access to information where it is needed most
Get involved
Your gifts fund our efforts to support the work of Foundation Hirondelle in delivering trusted and impartial news to regions made vulnerable by conflict. Thank you for helping to bring information to the lives of millions. To make a donation: $1,000 $500
$250
$100
$50
Other: _____________
Check enclosed (make payable to Hirondelle USA) To make an online donation go to hirondelleusa.org/get-involved My company,______________________ , will match my gift (I have enclosed or will send a matching gift form). If you would like to gift appreciated stock to Hirondelle USA please check this box and we will contact you for details. Please charge $________ to my
MasterCard
or
Visa
Credit Card Number Zip Expiration Date Security Code Name on Card Signature Name Address City State Zip Telephone Email Mail to our Cambridge Headquarters: Hirondelle US Ltd., 122 Trowbridge St, Cambridge MA 02138
Kofi Annan